Parshat Shemini
March 29, 2003

Vayikra is the book of Kedushah, sanctity. In order to create and maintain Kedushah, it is necessary for the Jew to observe a life of self-discipline and constant connection to Hashem. In this context, the complex laws of Tum’ah and T’harah (spiritual “impurity” and “purity”) are central: One who has the closest contact with the holy – namely, one who enters the Sanctuary – must be tahor, spiritually pure.

The Torah delineates various conditions that render a person tamei (spiritually impure), such as contact with the carcass of an animal or of certain species of lizards (Vayikra 11:24 –31; 39-40). Furthermore, utensils can contract tum’ah:

And anything into which falls any of these, when they are dead, shall become tamei – any vessel of wood, or cloth, or skin, or sackcloth – any utensil with which work can be done, shall be put into water and remain tamei until the evening, when it will be tahor. And any vessel of pottery into which one of them falls, all that is in it shall be tamei, and it shall you break (Vayikra 11:32-33).

Here, the Torah lists some of the types of utensils that can become tamei. (Other utensils that can contract tum’ah are discussed in Bamidbar 31:20-23.)

However, not all utensils are susceptible to tum’ah. The very fact that the Torah lists certain materials suggests that other materials are being intentionally excluded from the list. The Torat Kohanim (Midrash Halachah on the Book of Vayikra) makes this point explicitly:

“Or cloth, or skin – The verse compares skin to cloth: just as cloth is from that which grows on the dry land, so is skin from that which grows on dry land.”

Torah Temimah explains the reasoning of the Torat Kohanim. Although skin could theoretically have referred to the derivative of any creature, the analogy to cloth places a restriction on the definition of skin: namely, skin that is like cloth. Now, the examples of cloth given by the Torah (Vayikra 13:47) are wool and linen. This establishes the principle that cloth is defined as that which is woven from materials that originate on the dry land, such as wool that is taken from animal shearings, or from plant fibers (see Rambam, Laws of Utensils 1:11).

Skin is subjected to the same restriction. As a result, utensils made from creatures that do not live on dry land cannot become tamei. For example, items made from the bones of a bird are “immune” to Tum’ah (Rambam, Ibid, 1:2).

The same is true of items made from sea plants, or the bones or skin of sea creatures: since they do not originate on dry land, they cannot become tamei. The Mishnah (Kelim 17:14) summarizes that that which was created on the fifth day of Creation (sea creatures and birds, Bereishit 1:20-23) has no connection to Tum’ah.

An interesting exception to this is found in the previous Mishnah (Kelim 17:13):

Everything that is in the sea is tahor, except for kelev ha’mayim [possibly the seal], because it flees to the dry land: these are the words of Rabbi Akiva.
Rabbi Akiva – whom the law follows – teaches that even though the kelev ha’mayim lives most of its life in the water, the fact that it takes refuge, in times of danger, on the dry land determines that it is a land animal. A utensil made from the hide of the kelev ha’mayim is thus capable of becoming tamei.

Rabbi Akiva’s teaching contains an important guideline for human behavior as well. It is in time of danger that we must demonstrate where we consider our true “home”.

Two applications of this idea would be instructive. The Talmud (Berachot 61b) teaches:

It once happened that the [Roman] government decreed that Israel was permitted to be involved in Torah. What did Rabbi Akiva do? He went and made public gatherings and sat and expounded. Pappus ben Yehudah found him and said, “Akiva, are you not afraid of this nation?”

Said he to him, “I will give you a parable. To what can this be compared? To a fox who was walking above the river. He saw fish rushing to and fro. He said to them, ‘Why are you rushing?’

“They said to him, ‘Because of the nets and traps that are set for us.’

“He said to them, ‘Don’t you want to come up on dry land? Then you and I will live together, as my ancestors once lived with your ancestors.’

“They said to him, ‘Are you the one of whom it is said that he is the cleverest of beasts?! You are not clever but foolish! If we are afraid in the place that is the source of our life, then all the more so in the place of our death!’

“So are we: At the time when we are involved in Torah, of which it is written, ‘For it is your life and the length of your days’ (Devarim 30:20), we are afraid, then if we were to cease from Torah, all the more so.”

Rabbi Akiva again teaches the definition of “home”. The “natural habitat” of the Jewish people is in the study of Torah. It serves as the source of our life. We continue to study Torah, even when it is dangerous to do so, because a life without Torah means certain spiritual death. If we continue our connection to Torah in times of danger, we demonstrate that Torah is our only true “home”.

The “natural habitat” of the nation of Israel is in the land of Israel. While individual Jews might be unable to live in Eretz Yisrael, and while local Jewish communities may need to exist in exile, the only natural place for the Jewish people to constitute itself as a sovereign, independent nation is in Eretz Yisrael. As the Zohar (Emor 93) says, “ In Israel, they are one nation.” (This citation and many others, are to be found in “Torat Eretz Yisrael,” Chapter 5, based on the teachings of HaRav Tzvi Yehuda HaCohen Kook, as well as throughout “Eim Ha’banim Semeichah”, by HaRav Yisachar Shlomo Teichtal.) Outside of Eretz Yisrael, we are not one nation.

It is in times of danger that we show where we wish, to be. To sever the nation of Israel from the land Israel is to sever if from the source of its life and its national identity. If we maintain the nation of Israel in Eretz Yisrael, even when it is dangerous to do so, we demonstrate that Eretz Yisrael is Klal Yisrael’s only true home.

In our Torah, and in our land, the Jewish people truly and fully exists. They constitute our nation’s “home,” where we can aspire to Kedushah.

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